Safety-check for automatic couplings.



S. T. SHROYER.

SAFETY CHECK FOR AUTOMATIC COUPLINGS. 7

. APPLIGA'I'ION rum) NOV. a0, 1908.

922,348. Patented May 18, 1909.

all the cars following.

SAMUEL T. SHROYER, OF BELLEFONTA-INE, OHIO.

SAFETY-CHECK FOR AUTOh IATIO COUPLINGS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ."May 18, 1909.

Application filed. November 30, 19(18. Serial No. 465,463.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL T. SHROYER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bellelontaine, in the county of Logan and State of Ohio, have invented a new and usei'ul Improvement i' or Safety-Checks for Automatic Couplers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention. relates to certain improvements in automatic car couplers, especially those known as the knuckle type, and consists in providing a safety device to prevent draw heads from dropping on the track when pulled out of the car i'rame.

Figure 1 is a top view of a set of draw heads with the knuckles locked in position. Fig. 2 is a detached, perspective view one of the knuckles ol' the coupler now in general use, showing the ribs or my addition to the knuckles.

The object of my invention is to provide a means of automatically preventing draw heads of cars from falling on the track when pulled out of the car frame.

Automatic couplers are of many different types, but most of them belong to what is known as the knuckle class, very similar to the one shown in the drawing, in which the two knuckles A A look together as shown in Fig. 1. it recks are of daily occurrence on most oi the roads of the country caused by the drawbar, from some cause or another, being pulled out of the car frame, falling on the track and derailing and smashing part or The knuckle form of coupler is e'tlicient and reliable in a straight pull, but heretofore there has been no provision made to prevent the loose drawbar, which had pulled out of the car frame from dropping to the track in the path of the approaching cars to the rear. These di'awbars, weighing several hundred pounds each, dropped on the track in iront of an approaching car are too lar e to pass beneath the cars and results in derailing the cars following. To prevent the serious consequences of the drawhead falling on the track when pulled out, 1 form two ribs, or projecting ledges B, C, on the inside of each knuckle A, one at the top 01' the knuckle and the other at B, about midway of its perpendicular face.

i Vheri the cars are coupled and the knuckles locked in position shown in Fig. 1, the lower rib or projection B of each knuckle is in line directly below the projection O on the other knuckle so that, if from any cause, one of the drawbars should pull out of the car, the knuckle instead of falling with the drawhead to the ground, is arrested by the projection C dropping onto the rib or shelf B, where it is held firmly, the two knuckles holding securely in each others grasp, with the one on the detached draw bar slightly lower than the other, but held from falling on the track.

V hat I claim is:

The combination with the knuckle clutches in an automatic car coupler ol' projecting lugs O at the top of each oi the knuckles, and the ledges B on each of the knuckles, the ledge B on each knuckle being situate beneath the lug O on the opposite knuckle when the knuckles are interlocked, as and for the purpose set forth.

SAh IUEL T. SHROYER. Witnesses B. F. Sr-rnornn, O. K. CAMPBELL. 

